Actualidades del SIHM

A proposal that all medical schools should set up
Department of Medical humanism

During the 40th International Congress of the History
of Medicine in Budapest in August 2006, Dr Miguel Gonzalez-Guerra of
Caracas, Venezuela presented a paper on Medical Humanism.

He noted three aims of medical education, firstly to
train doctors to care for the health of individual patients, secondly to
teach them to be able to provide health for communities and thirdly and
very importantly, to train them to think and work as doctors should.
Subjects included in the first type of education are Anatomy and
Physiology, Medicine and Surgery, Pharmacology and Pathology. Examples
of the second are Social Science, Epidemiology and Public Health.
Examples of the third are Philosophy, Ethics, Law and the History of
Medicine.

Those involved in the History of Medicine, therefore,
should be aware that its role in medical education is a very significant
one and should try to maximize its influence. To this end he asked that
the ISHM should approve a proposal that all medical schools should
establish Departments of Medical Humanism. This would act as a positive
force within medical education in developing the behavior sought in an
ideal doctor.

Dr Gonzalez-Guerra gave examples from the Hippocratic
writings, of the behavior expected in an ideal doctor These included
honesty, kindness and tolerance, generosity, modesty, serenity,
objectivity and a knowledge of what was necessary and what was useful.

Departments of Medical Humanism would be a focus for
and integrate with other allied departments such as Bioethics,
Philosophy in Medicine, History of Medicine and Law in Medicine. Dr
Gonzalez-Guerra hoped that the ISHM would do as much as possible to help
realize these aims.

After this lecture, Klaus Bergdolt (Germany) and
Efraim Lev (Israel) joined Miguel Gonzalez-Guerra (Venezuela) to make
further comments on teaching the History of Medicine, whose text was
published in Vesalius, Vol XII, n° 2, December 2006.

The "Budapest Prize" of ISHM/SIHM(Preliminary Notice)

During the 40th International Congress of the History of
Medicine in Budapest, it was agreed to create a Prize for the writing of
a History of the ISHM.

It is hoped that researchers will compete in gathering together
available data from the almost eighty years of the Society's life, which
will result in the composition of a high quality monograph.

The deadline for submission is July 2008 and an award of 5000 euros
will be made to the winner. A formal announcement will appear in various
journals, including Vesalius, and on various web sites. Those interested
in competing are encouraged to contact the President of ISHM:

Prix Jean-Charles Sournia

The French Society for History of Medicine (SFHM) created the "Prix
Jean-Charles Sournia", from the name of one of the past President of the
ISHM, devoted to reward, every two years, an original research about
history of the medical sciences, written in French by "a foreign
international researcher of less than 40 years".